Abstract: We report here structural, mechanical and I-V
characteristics of Zn1-xMxO ceramic samples with various x and M.
It is found that the considered dopants does not influence the wellknown
peaks related to wurtzite structure of ZnO ceramics, while the
shape and size of grains are clearly affected. Average crystalline
diameters, deduced from XRD are between 42 nm and 54 nm, which
are 70 times lower than those obtained from SEM micrographs.
Interestingly, the potential barrier could be formed by adding Cu up
to 0.20, and it is completely deformed by 0.025 Ni additions. The
breakdown field could be enhanced up to 4138 V/cm by 0.025 Cu
additions, followed by a decrease with further increase of Cu . On
the other hand a gradual decrease in VHN is reported for both
dopants and their values are higher in Ni samples as compared to Cu
samples. The electrical conductivity is generally improved by Ni,
while addition of Cu improved it only in the over doped region (≥
0.10). These results are discussed in terms of the difference of
valency and ferromagnetic ordering for both dopants as compared to
undoped sample.
Abstract: Composite steel shear wall is a lateral load resisting system which consists of a steel plate with concrete wall attached to one or both sides to prevent it from elastic buckling. The composite behavior is ensured by utilizing high-strength bolts. This paper investigates the effect of distance between bolts, and for this purpose 14 one-story one-bay specimens with various bolts spacing were modeled by finite element code which is developed by the authors. To verify the model, numerical results were compared with a valid experiment which illustrate proper agreement. Results depict increasing the distance between bolts would improve the seismic ever, this increase must be limited, because of large distances will cause widespread buckling of the steel plate in free subpanels between bolts and would result in no improvement. By comparing the results in elastic region, it was observed initial stiffness is not affected by changing the distance.
Abstract: This paper presents a comparative study on
Vanadyl Phthalocyanine (VOPc) thin films deposited by thermal
evaporation and spin coating techniques. The samples
were prepared on cleaned glass substrates and annealed at
various temperatures ranging form 95oC to 155oC. To obtain
the morphological and structural properties of VOPc thin
films, X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique and atomic force
microscopy (AFM) have been implied. The AFM topographic
images show a very slight difference in the thermally grown
films, before and after annealing, however best results are
achieved for the spin-cast film annealed at 125oC. The XRD
spectra show no existence of the sharp peaks, suggesting the
material to be amorphous. The humps in the XRD patterns
indicate the presence of some crystallites.
Abstract: The temperature distribution and the heat transfer
rates through a multi-layer door of a furnace were investigated. The
inside of the door was in contact with hot air and the other side of the
door was in contact with room air. Radiation heat transfer from the
walls of the furnace to the door and the door to the surrounding area
was included in the problem. This work is a two dimensional steady
state problem. The Churchill and Chu correlation was used to find
local convection heat transfer coefficients at the surfaces of the
furnace door. The thermophysical properties of air were the functions
of the temperatures. Polynomial curve fitting for the fluid properties
were carried out. Finite difference method was used to discretize for
conduction heat transfer within the furnace door. The Gauss-Seidel
Iteration was employed to compute the temperature distribution in
the door.
The temperature distribution in the horizontal mid plane of the
furnace door in a two dimensional problem agrees with the one
dimensional problem. The local convection heat transfer coefficients
at the inside and outside surfaces of the furnace door are exhibited.
Abstract: A finite element analysis was conducted to determine
the effect of moisture diffusion and hygroscopic swelling in rice. A
parallel simple stochastic modeling was performed to predict the
number of grains cracked as a result of moisture absorption and
hygroscopic swelling. Rice grains were soaked in thermally (25 oC)
controlled water and then tested for compressive stress. The
destructive compressive stress tests revealed through compressive
stress calculation that the peak force required to cause cracking in
grains soaked in water reduced with time as soaking duration was
extended. Results of the experiment showed that several grains had
their value of the predicted compressive stress below the von Mises
stress and were interpreted as grains which become cracked and/or
broke during soaking. The technique developed in this experiment
will facilitate the approximation of the number of grains which will
crack during soaking.
Abstract: Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 viruses have created demand for a cost-effective vaccine to prevent a pandemic of the disease. Here, we report that Trichoplusia ni (T. ni) larvae can act as a cost-effective bioreactor to produce recombinant HA5 (rH5HA) proteins as an potential effective vaccine for chickens. To facilitate the recombinant virus identification, virus titer determination and access the infected larvae, we employed the internal ribosome entry site (IRES) derived from Perina nuda virus (PnV, belongs to insect picorna like Iflavirus genus) to construct a bi-cistronic baculovirus expression vector that can express the rH5HA protein and enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) simultaneously. Western blot analysis revealed that the 70 kDa rH5HA protein and partially cleaved products (40 kDa H5HA1) were generated in T. ni larvae infected with recombinant baculovirus carrying the H5HA gene. These data suggest that the baculovirus-larvae recombinant protein expression system could be a cost-effective platform for H5N1 vaccine production.
Abstract: Due to short product life cycles, increasing variety of
products and short cycles of leap innovations manufacturing
companies have to increase the flexibility of factory structures.
Flexibility of factory structures is based on defined factory planning
processes in which product, process and resource data of various
partial domains have to be considered. Thus factory planning
processes can be characterized as iterative, interdisciplinary and
participative processes [1]. To support interdisciplinary and
participative character of planning processes, a federative factory
data management (FFDM) as a holistic solution will be described.
FFDM is already implemented in form of a prototype. The interim
results of the development of FFDM will be shown in this paper. The
principles are the extracting of product, process and resource data
from documents of various partial domains providing as web services
on a server. The described data can be requested by the factory
planner by using a FFDM-browser.
Abstract: A new decomposition form is introduced in this report
to establish a criterion for the bi-partite separability of Bell diagonal
states. A such criterion takes a quadratic inequality of the coefficients
of a given Bell diagonal states and can be derived via a simple
algorithmic calculation of its invariants. In addition, the criterion can
be extended to a quantum system of higher dimension.
Abstract: Developing a university course schedule is
difficult. This is due to the limitations in the resources
available. The process is made even harder with different
faculties or departments having different ways of stating their
schedule requirements. The person in charge of taking the
schedule requirements and turning them into a proper course
schedule is not only burden with the task of allocating the
appropriate classes and time to lecturers and students, they
also need to understand the schedule requirements. Therefore
a scheduling support system named SATA is developed to
assist ICRESS in the course scheduling process. SATA has
been put to use for several semesters and the results have been
encouraging. It won a bronze medal in the 2008 Invention,
Innovation and Design competition (IID-08) and has been
submitted to be patented in October 2008
Abstract: Functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGID) affect millions of people spread all age regardless of race and sex. Emotional stress and obesity have been associated with increased reporting of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, but the relationship between FGID and risk factors (emotional stress or obesity) is unclear. Our aim was to assess the changes of the mechanical characteristics on the gastrointestinal tracts of the mentally fatigued obese and normal rat models. Finally, using the physical characteristics with micro-indentation test, we made a close investigation into the relation between FGID and risk factors quantitatively.
Abstract: Training with Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES)
has both physiological and psychological benefits for spinal cord
injured subjects. Commonly used methods for quantification of
spasticity have shown controversial reliability. In this study we
propose a method for quick determination of spasticity in spinal cord
injured subjects on a cycling and measurement system. 23 patients
did training sessions on an instrumented mobile FES cycle three
times a week over two months as part of their clinical rehabilitation
program. Spasticity (MAS) and the legs resistance to the pedaling
motion were assessed before and after the FES training and
measurements were done on the subjects ability to pedal with our
without motor assistance. Measurements with test persons with
incomplete spastic paraplegia have shown that spasticity is decreased
after a 30 min cycling training with functional electrical stimulation
(FES).
Abstract: Pepper spray use has gained momentum since 1992
and although the active ingredient is readily available, it is considered
a weapon with restricted use in many regions, including The
Bahamas. In light of controversy in the literature regarding the
severity of presenting respiration complaints among individuals postacute
exposure of pepper spray inhalation, this descriptive case series
study was conducted to assess the respiratory status of persons
evaluated during a mass casualty in The Bahamas. Parameters noted
were patients- demographics and respiration severity determined via
clinical examination findings, disposition and follow-up review of the
20 persons. Their most common complaint was difficulty breathing
post exposure. Two required admission and stayed for
Abstract: A wireless power transfer system can attribute to the
fields in robot, aviation and space in which lightening the weight of
device and improving the movement play an important role. A
wireless power transfer system was investigated to overcome the
inconvenience of using power cable. Especially a wireless power
transfer technology is important element for mobile robots. We
proposed the wireless power transfer system of the half-bridge
resonant converter with the frequency tracking and optimized
power transfer control unit. And the possibility of the application
and development system was verified through the experiment with
LED loads.
Abstract: The paper investigates the main issues concerning the activity of mergers and acquisitions in Romania in the period 2000- 2004. As in the first decade after the failure of the socialist economy the market of M&A was living its infancy based exclusively on privatization transactions, after 2000 the market entered in a stage of maturity. We are investigated both the registered evolutions in terms of number and value of transactions, and some sectoral issues, concerning the most important industries affected by the M&A process.
Abstract: In this paper, stability and Hopf bifurcation analysis of
a novel hyperchaotic system are investigated. Four feedback control
strategies, the linear feedback control method, enhancing feedback
control method, speed feedback control method and delayed feedback
control method, are used to control the hyperchaotic attractor to
unstable equilibrium. Moreover numerical simulations are given to
verify the theoretical results.
Abstract: This paper discusses the effectiveness of the EEG signal
for human identification using four or less of channels of two different
types of EEG recordings. Studies have shown that the EEG signal
has biometric potential because signal varies from person to person
and impossible to replicate and steal. Data were collected from 10
male subjects while resting with eyes open and eyes closed in 5
separate sessions conducted over a course of two weeks. Features
were extracted using the wavelet packet decomposition and analyzed
to obtain the feature vectors. Subsequently, the neural networks
algorithm was used to classify the feature vectors. Results show that,
whether or not the subjects- eyes were open are insignificant for a 4–
channel biometrics system with a classification rate of 81%. However,
for a 2–channel system, the P4 channel should not be included if data
is acquired with the subjects- eyes open. It was observed that for 2–
channel system using only the C3 and C4 channels, a classification
rate of 71% was achieved.
Abstract: Extraction of lactic acid by emulsion liquid membrane technology (ELM) using n-trioctyl amine (TOA) in n-heptane as carrier within the organic membrane along with sodium carbonate as acceptor phase was optimized by using response surface methodology (RSM). A three level Box-Behnken design was employed for experimental design, analysis of the results and to depict the combined effect of five independent variables, vizlactic acid concentration in aqueous phase (cl), sodium carbonate concentration in stripping phase (cs), carrier concentration in membrane phase (ψ), treat ratio, and batch extraction time (τ)
with equal volume of organic and external aqueous phase on lactic acid extraction efficiency. The maximum lactic acid extraction efficiency (ηext) of 98.21%from aqueous phase in a batch reactor using ELM was found at the optimized values for test variables, cl, cs, ψ, and τ as 0.06 [M], 0.18 [M], 4.72 (%,v/v), 1.98 (v/v) and 13.36 min respectively.
Abstract: This paper describes dynamic analysis using proposed
fast finite element method for a shock absorbing structure including a
sponge. The structure is supported by nonlinear concentrated springs.
The restoring force of the spring has cubic nonlinearity and linear
hysteresis damping. To calculate damping properties for the structures
including elastic body and porous body, displacement vectors as
common unknown variable are solved under coupled condition. Under
small amplitude, we apply asymptotic method to complex eigenvalue
problem of this system to obtain modal parameters. And then
expressions of modal loss factor are derived approximately. This
approach was proposed by one of the authors previously. We call this
method as Modal Strain and Kinetic Energy Method (MSKE method).
Further, using the modal loss factors, the discretized equations in
physical coordinate are transformed into the nonlinear ordinary
coupled equations using normal coordinate corresponding to linear
natural modes. This transformation yields computation efficiency. As
a numerical example of a shock absorbing structures, we adopt double
skins with a sponge. The double skins are supported by nonlinear
concentrated springs. We clarify influences of amplitude of the input
force on nonlinear and chaotic responses.
Abstract: Sign language is used by the deaf and hard of hearing people for communication. Automatic sign language recognition is a challenging research area since sign language often is the only way of communication for the deaf people. Sign language includes different components of visual actions made by the signer using the hands, the face, and the torso, to convey his/her meaning. To use different aspects of signs, we combine the different groups of features which have been extracted from the image frames recorded directly by a stationary camera. We combine the features in two levels by employing three techniques. At the feature level, an early feature combination can be performed by concatenating and weighting different feature groups, or by concatenating feature groups over time and using LDA to choose the most discriminant elements. At the model level, a late fusion of differently trained models can be carried out by a log-linear model combination. In this paper, we investigate these three combination techniques in an automatic sign language recognition system and show that the recognition rate can be significantly improved.
Abstract: The objective of this work is to produce heterotrophic
microalgal lipid in flask-batch fermentation. Chlorella sp. KKU-S2
supported maximum values of 0.374 g/L/d, 0.478 g lipid/g cells, and
0.112 g/L/d for volumetric lipid production rate, and specific yield of
lipid, and specific rate of lipid production, respectively when culture
was performed on BG-11 medium supplemented with 50g/L glucose.
Among the carbon sources tested, maximum cell yield coefficient
(YX/S, g/L), maximum specific yield of lipid (YP/X, g lipid/g cells) and
volumetric lipid production rate (QP, g/L/d) were found of 0.728,
0.237, and 0.619, respectively, using sugarcane molasses as carbon
source. The main components of fatty acid from extracted lipid were
palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid and linoleic acid which similar
to vegetable oils and suitable for biodiesel production.